Finding Our Gifts

Sister's weekend wasn't all shopping and alcohol.  We also had some good down to earth conversations, taking advantage of time uninterrupted by spouses, children, telephones, and household needs.  One conversation veered into almost profound when we were talking about the talents and contributions members of our family had.  These went beyond physical talent.  One of my sisters described me as being the most resourceful in the family.  She said I always had a solution, or at least mitigation, to every problem.  Of course we did get down the silly road here as well in telling stories of each others gifts. 

She shared the one summer her husband was driving them all crazy with his over exuberance of gardening. Not having tried his hand at gardening before, though his dad was an avid gardener, he planted more tomatoes than most families would use in a year, and it turned out a combination of the perfect growing summer and a green thumb he never knew he had, and they were filling their kitchen counter with tomatoes for nearly a  month.  She told the girls she may have buried him in his own tomatoes had  I not intervened and took the surplus, buckets and buckets of them, and turned half into salsa to can, and just canned the other half.  I also cleared out all the mason jars that had been moved from my parents country house, into their city townhouse that had been collecting dust and wasting space. We both had tomatoes for the winter and many jars of salsa to give away.  Problem solved. 

This was a one off problem; the gardening bug passed him by for another new hobby.  He bought and and learned to play the ukulele.  Guess what my sisters gift is?